Adam at Six A.M.

Call it sentiments of generation X before generation X. This movie was fantastic. It asks the sincere question: do you see yourself as successful, or do others see it in you? And what would happen if you and society found your success in different places? The last scene captures the outcome visually with great symbolism.

This is a very early Michael (or as he was popularly known then, Mikey) Douglas vehicle. He plays a disillusioned college professor of the late Sixties (there seem to have been so many of them scurrying about in those days!) who drops out of his successful, stressful life in the big city to go in a search for his roots in a not-so-idyllic midwestern small town. The story plods along, showing his courtship of a rather status-proud Junior Miss type whose Mom (wonderfully etched by Louise Latham) is the town hairdresser, and his adventures in serious male bonding with Joe Don Baker and other flannel clad logger types. Grayson Hall has an excellent cameo role as his aunt, and gets to administer a deft put-down of Douglas' masculine vanity towards the end. In some ways the last 30 seconds is the best part of the movie. Overall not at all a bad effort. To quote Maggie Smith in a movie that is much more suitable to this writer's temperament, "For those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing that they like." I did make liberal use of the fast forward button in viewing "Adam at Six A. M."

Idealistic college professor decides to find himself by spending a summer in the midwest as a laborer. He meets and falls in love with a beautiful young lady who, to his regret, cannot share his same vision. Biggest differance here is that the other laborers aren't potrayed as ignorant, suspicious, bigots. Instead we see them as friendly, helpful, and interesting people. Does degenerate into the perverbial bar fight, but mostly this is a subdued, almost loving look at Americas' heartland. Great chance to see Michael Douglas in a very early dramatic role. (He did this even before STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO). Lee Purcell is also quite good becoming easily identifiable of most young ladies of that era (and even today). She willingly takes on the more 'liberated' values of the younger generation when it is conveniant and fun, but is unable (and unwilling) to break from the mores of the enviroment from which she was raised. Has a good final shot.

The person who made the comment that the title of this film makes no sense is incorrect. Of course, the title makes sense. The main character, Adam, is a young college professor who spends the summer working at a blue collar job. Thus, he gets up at 6 a.m. to go to work. The entire movie is about the summer that he spends working at this job. I first saw this film when I was about twelve or thirteen, and I absolutely loved it. It's now a period piece, but it's an excellent period piece. The last shot of this film--which I won't reveal here--is wonderful. I've described it to many, many people over the years as being one of the funniest things that I've ever seen in a movie. I can still remember watching this on television with my brother and my father, and we all laughed hysterically at that final shot.

Michael Douglas plays a young semantics professor who has several close lady friends. I believe the film takes place in California. It has a definite hippie-era vibe. The soundtrack is kind of country-sounding, and it makes you wish they'd spent a little cash on getting some popular rock musicians to do the score. No real original music to keep the film "fresh-feeling". I've seen a dozen better films from this era about similar subject matter. Nicholson was in about five or so of them. Douglas always has a p***ed off look on his face in this movie. But I still enjoy almost every MD film I watch. He's just not Jack Nicholson. Then again, who is? Except Mr.Ray-Bans himself.